1. Field of the Invention
The inventions relate to a charging device. Specifically, the inventions relate to a charging device, and particularly, to a charging device for transferring information relating to the collection of a toll on a moving body traveling within a charge applicable area and the like and for implementing charge processing for the user of the moving body, and to a charging device that is mounted in a vehicle and that performs data processing for the payment of a toll arising from the use of a charge area at a point when predetermined conditions are met when a vehicle is driving through the charge area.
2. Description of the Related Art
A moving body such as vehicle that travels on a toll paying installation (such as a toll road) is charged in accordance with the type of the vehicle as well as the distance traveled on the toll road. In order to automatically collect the toll at an entry gate or exit gate of the toll road, a road-vehicle intercommunication system for performing wireless information transfer between an in-vehicle device and an on-road device is used. In this system, a communication device having an antenna for sending and receiving electrical waves (i.e. the on-road device) is provided on the road as an interrogator for seeking information on the relevant vehicle. In addition, a communication device having an antenna (i.e. the in-vehicle device) is provided in the vehicle as a responder for responding to the sought information.
Technology is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 10-63903, in which a toll is collected from a vehicle based on the entry to the toll road (which is a specific territory), the exit from the toll road, and the route between the two.
However, when this type of road-vehicle intercommunication system is used to transfer information, it is necessary to install an on-road device at the entries and exits of the charge applicable area, such as the entry gates and exit gates of a toll road. If the area for which a toll is to be charged, such as a toll road, is-one-dimensional, the installation is easy, however, if the charge applicable area is set as a area or the like covering a wide range, it is necessary to install on-road devices at all of the entries and exits resulting in the cost increasing in accordance with the number of entry and exit locations.
In view of the above circumstances, the first object of the present invention is to provide a charge device having a simple structure that is capable of implementing charge processing for a user of a moving body.
Currently, tollbooths are provided along the route of a toll road and vehicles are made to sop there so that the charging operation can be performed. In this type of charging method, a large amount of labor and time are wasted in the toll collection and traffic becomes extremely congested around the tollbooths. Therefore, a system has been proposed in which devices for determining the passage of a vehicle (hereinafter referred to as vehicle passage detectors) are installed on a plurality of routes and the charge is levied by determining which route of the plurality of routes a vehicle has traveled over. An example of this method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 9-212794. In this system, there are few branching routes and entry and exit points (i.e. interchanges). Therefore, in a toll road network in which the distances between interchanges is comparatively long, there only needs to be a small number of vehicle passage detectors installed enabling the system to be set up easily.
Moreover, because a prepaid card capable of having the balance thereof updated is used, when the vehicle exits the toll road, information indicating the route traveled by the vehicle is transmitted to an antenna terminal, the antenna terminal calculates the toll for the route traveled and transmits this to the vehicle, and the vehicle then deducts this toll from the prepaid card, thereby doing away with the need for the vehicle to be stopped in order for the toll to be paid. However, in a toll road network in which there is a large number of branch ing routes and entry and exit points (i.e. interchanges) as well as a large number of short distances between interchanges, but in which the total distance of the road network as a whole is large, there needs to be a large number of vehicle passage detectors installed resulting in the setting up and maintenance costs thereof be coming enormously expensive.
It is also possible to consider charges or traffic regulations in a specific area as a means of easing traffic congestion, reducing atmospheric pollution, reducing noise, obtaining regional revenue, or the like. In contrast to a charge area in which the highway network is a continuous distribution of narrow arteries, the charge area for a specific area such as that described above is an isolated area covering a large surface area. In this case, there is a high probability that the road network within the area will be complex, and the establishment of tollbooths for stopping a vehicle to collect charges is not feasible. Instead, the employing of an automatic charge processing system that uses prepaid cards is desirable.
The charging for a specific area is performed by first installing in a vehicle a GPS position finder and/or a gyro navigation position finder by means of which it can be confirmed whether or not the vehicle is in the specific area, and deducting a charge amount determined by the controlling authority from the balance on a prepaid card for each passage of the vehicle through the specific area, or for the total distance traveled within the specific area, or for the length of time the vehicle was inside the specific area. The balance of the prepaid card is then updated as the new balance. However, when the vehicle is traveling in the area around the outer edge of the specific area, there is a high probability that, due to errors in the positional measurement by the position finder, errors may occur in the detection such as the vehicle being recognized as being outside (or inside) the specific area when, in fact, the vehicle is actually inside (or outside) the specific area. As a result, it may be considered that the result of this is that the recognition (or supposition) of the vehicle driver and the automatic charge processing (i.e. the rewriting of the card balance) based on the positional recognition by the position finder are greatly at variance with each other.
In particular, in a pay per entry charging system in which payment of an amount set by a controlling authority is made for each single entry into the specific area (i.e. a single entry followed by an exit), the result is that there is a great deal of unevenness in the amount paid. For example, as is shown in FIG. 55A, if a single passage is made in a straight line through charge area 1, because the road is close to the outer edge of charge area 1, the entry into and exit from charge area 1 as detected by the position finder could quite conceivably be an erratic repetition of entries and exits as is shown by the two dot dash line. Because of this erratic movement, it might be automatically recognized that there were three entries, for example, when there was actually only a single passage, and the charge becoming multiplied by three.
In actual fact, when the system is one where a charge is made per entry which causes this type of charge processing result, the charge amount is low when the route taken passes through the middle of the charge area and skyrockets when the route passes near the outer edge of the charge area. Therefore, a possible outcome might be that the volume of traffic passing through the central portion of the charge area will be increased, while the volume of traffic near the outer edges of the charge area will be reduced. However, on the contrary, if the hope is to lessen the volume of traffic passing through the central portion of the charge area and increase the volume of traffic near the outer edges of the charge area, the result is the opposite to the one hoped for.
Moreover, as is shown in the aforementioned FIG. 55A, if the distance between neighboring charge areas is short, then not only is it automatically recognized that three entries have been made into charge area 1, but it is automatically recognized that two entries have been made into charge area 2. For example, as is shown in FIG. 55B, by making the distance between neighboring charge areas wider, it is possible to avoid erroneously detecting that an entry has been made into a neighboring charge area when no such entry has actually been made. However, it is not possible to avoid erroneously detecting that charge area 1 has been entered three times.
The second object of the present invention is to provide a charging device capable of regulating charging frequency for the passage of a vehicle near the outer edge of a charge area. The third object of the present invention is to stabilize this charging frequency.